1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an elastic forming die and a method for manufacturing products molded from chocolate, jelly, wax, and the like, and, in particular, to a mold release method and device for the molding method and device using the elastic forming die.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, chocolate confections, jelly confections, frozen confections, ice, sugar cubes, soap cakes, wax, and the like are produced by filling a forming die with a molding material in liquid, powder, or granule form, then solidifying the material.
A metal mold is most frequently used as a forming die for obtaining these molded goods, but in order to manufacture molded goods with complicated shapes it is necessary to use a complicated split die of a suitable construction. As a result, the cost of the metal mold and the cost of manufacturing are very high. In addition, there are limitations on the shapes in which the molded goods can be produced.
In order to resolve these problems, an elastic forming die has been proposed, comprising a main mold section with an elastic membrane which acts to release the molded product and a fixed leaf of elastic membrane which is connected to an aperture in the main mold section and extends as a plane surface (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 175160/1987).
A molding device using the above-mentioned conventional elastic forming die into which material for the molded product is filled has been proposed (Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 220310/1987) comprising a filling device for charging the molding material into the elastic forming die, a solidifying device for solidifying the charged molding material, an expanding device for expanding a filling aperture to remove the solidified molded product from the elastic forming die, and an expelling device for pressing out the filled material.
The above-mentioned conventional elastic forming die has the advantage that it is possible to manufacture molded products in a wide variety of shapes at low cost for both the molds and the manufacturing process. However, when the molding material is filled into the elastic forming die there is the problem that securing the elastic forming die and removing the solidified molded product from the elastic forming die, and the like, is rather difficult.
In addition, as the thickness of the membrane at the aperture of the main mold section is increased it becomes more difficult to expand the part, therefore there are occasions when removal of the elastic forming die from the base die and extraction of the molded product from the elastic forming die are not easy.
Also, when manufacturing the elastic forming die, part of the elastic membrane attached to the base die is not required and must be removed. For this reason there is the problem that some elastic material is wasted and a removal process is necessary.
In a molding device using the above-mentioned conventional elastic forming die, an expansion device is provided to expand the aperture section (the filling aperture) to remove the molded product, which has solidified inside the elastic forming die, from the die. The molded product is released from the elastic forming die by means of this expansion device.
However, when this expansion device (mold release device) is used, the periphery of the fixed leaf (flange section) of the elastic forming die is contained by a plurality of clamping members which are constructed so that they can be stretched outward in the radial direction. Because the part that is clamped by the clamping members is considerably expanded, while the other parts are not expanded to any great extent, the expansion of the aperture section is not uniform, which makes it difficult to release the molded product from the elastic forming die, and causing the problem that the elastic forming die is easily damaged. In addition, because the clamping members must be stretched a suitable distance only, at a uniform velocity in the outward radial direction, there is the problem that the expansion device becomes large and complicated.